# duko and the Sirius super cluster

*The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 21 Jun 2001*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1456>

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### Michael Andre-Driussi
*21 Jun 2001, 08:38*

> Jerry Friedman wrote:
> Why is there a k in "Duko"?

It was my impression that the word is from Esperanto rather than Italian.
Fitting the pattern that seems to exist in some places on the Whorl (and
Earth as well), where there is a base language supplemented by a second
"foreign" language for certain terms (military ranks, city names, religious
terms, science terms).  (I thought the Trivigantes had a blend that was
outside historical Islamic boundaries, but maybe not--since a blend of
Arabic, Persian, and Indian terms might point directly to, say, Pakistan,
or Sultanate of Deli.  That is, the bounds of Islam are large indeed.
Still--rani, or "ranee," is a Hindu queen; etc.)  I thought that one or
more other terms used by that group were also perfect Esperanto, but I
could be mistaken.

> Spectacled Bear wrote:
> What are the relations, if any, among www.sirius.com, www.siriusfiction.com,
> www.siriusbooks.com (whose web site shows only a CGI directory, inaccessible),
> www.sirius-books.com, and the Sirius Book Company who published some of Keith
> Roberts' work?

I can't speak to all of them.  I named Sirius Fiction in 1994, a publisher
for the Lexicon and a magazine.  There was a rash of Sirius namings around
that time, and one of them was an ISP.  I thought it would be funny to go
with them, and years later, I did just that.  Service went downhill and I
left for another ISP, finally getting around to setting up
siriusfiction.com, etc.

=mantis=


Sirius Fiction
Has Moved To
http://www.siriusfiction.com/



*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

---

### Jerry Friedman
*22 Jun 2001, 10:59 · follows Michael Andre-Driussi*

> --- Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
> wrote:
> Jerry Friedman wrote:

>> Why is there a k in "Duko"?

> It was my impression that the word is from Esperanto
> rather than Italian.

...

>  I
> thought that one or
> more other terms used by that group were also
> perfect Esperanto, but I
> could be mistaken.

Esperanto!  Thanks.  You know when I would have
guessed that?  Does anyone know whether how many of
the words from Grandecitta are Esperanto?  According
to
<http://wwwtios.cs.utwente.nl/traduk/EO-EN/Traduku>,
"strego/a" is not Esperanto; I'm sure it is Italian.

One of the gods was very strange if he or she
decided Grandecitta's language should be a mixture
of Esperanto and Italian.  But "very strange" is
about right.

```
Jerry Friedman
```

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